The Occa installation project, prepared within the scope of the Kadir Has University Architecture program, can be visited at Rezan Has Museum in June and July. Bringing together parametric design and digital fabrication tools, Occa is worth seeing.
Contrasting with the historical texture in Kadir Has University Rezan Has Museum, minimal and futuristic Occa borrows its shape from Ferrea Occa, a type of glass sponge that creates four-branched surfaces. Considered by some experts as the longest living life form on earth, these sponges were studied and documented in 1904 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel under the Artistic Forms of Nature (Kunstformen der Natur).
The installation design features polyhedra geometries, similar to the sponge form, combined and differentiated through branches facing different directions. Surface geometry is divided into strips, and created by connecting black stripes inside and white stripes outside. It is fixed with steel ropes hanging from two different points.
The installation project, titled “Parametric Design: Minimal Tectonics”, was produced as a result of a three-stage research. In the first stage, students performed "form-finding" experiments using the soap film technique developed by Frei Otto in the 1960s and produced different curvilinear surfaces. These surfaces were transferred to the codes in the second phase and derived using parametric modeling tools. In the last stage, the selected form was defined on flat pieces using digital fabrication algorithms, and it was laser-cut from Forex Boards then joined with rivets.
Occa is definitely worth a visit!
Project Coordinator: Dr.Sabri Gökmen,
Fabrication / Manufacturing: Muvaffak Ali Akyüz, Louis Folkens, Fatma Yeşim Kızılbulut, Özce Özköse, Melike Ayyüce Güneş, Mustafa Ilgaz Aluç, Şevval Büşra Özmen,
Graphics / Images: Abbas Khan, Mohammed Jarrar, Ahmed Barzan, Ali Ozan Güvenç.
